230 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



remembered that this apiary is in a town in which practi- 

 cally every colony of bees was found diseased, and in which 

 both American foul brood and European foul brood pre- 

 vailed. 



The practice of demonstrating to beekeepers has been con- 

 tinued in accordance with the keynote of apiary inspection 

 in Massachusetts, which from the first has been education. 

 The fruits of the effort are appearing; not infrequently the 

 inspectors find that beekeepers have already treated a 

 sporadic case of disease before the inspector arrives. This 

 is a vast improvement over conditions at the outset, when 

 beekeepers did not know that they had foul brood. Now 

 many are able to recognize disease and then distinguish 

 which type they have met with. It should be said at this 

 point, too, that the re-occurrence of disease is usually slight 

 and gains no headway with beekeepers who have become 

 familiar with handling it. 



Prevalent Diseases of tlie Year. — The infectious disease 

 most apparent during the current year was European foul 

 brood, which was about four times as prevalent as American 

 foul brood. The inspectors have also noticed an unusual 

 prevalence of pickled brood, and the writer's personal ob- 

 servation was that it occurred to an injurious extent occa- 

 sionally. 



Winter Loss. — In 1905 beekeepers sustained a severe 

 winter loss, which, according to many was exceeded during 

 the winter of 1911 and 1912. Careful records of the winter 

 loss were taken in order to ascertain the percentage. Among 

 756 beekeepers who could furnish data in all parts of the 

 State, there were put into winter quarters 5,199 colonies 

 of bees, 2,080 of which succumbed during the winter. This 

 is approximately 40 per cent of the colonies on record. It 

 was repeatedly observed that some small apiaries succumbed 

 entirely. In other cases the loss was from 50 to 00 per 

 cent. Many a beekeeper had but few colonies to start his 

 apiary in the spring. The reasons for this considerable loss 

 were largely due to the severity of the winter and the hard- 

 ships of the previous season. The 40 per cent, loss for Mas- 



